Look at universities with good psychology departments, ie, find the ten universities whose psychology departments are the ten best in the country, then closely look at the course content for each to determine which would be the best for you. If possible, narrow down ten to five, then five to your personal top three. Find out when the universities host their open days and attend them so you have the opportunity to ask tutors and student reps any questions. Don't forget to consider travelling distance and the cost of living: if your favourite university is based in London, the living costs will be much higher, so make sure you apply for the appropriate loans and grants in good time. Or, if your university is close to home, consider whether it would be more cost effective to commute rather than live on campus, but do bear in mind that living at university is an experience in itself. Do you want to miss out on this, or are you happy to stay where you are?

Lastly, and crucially, make sure you're aware of what grades (or points) each university expects of its applicants, and also familiarise yourself with their entry percentage. Psychology is a very popular course at university, and naturally the university that demands three As will have to be very selective. Make sure you do your very best at college so you don't miss out on the opportunity to get into your favourite university, but don't forget that it isn't just grades that are important. Extra-curricular activities, work experience and personal pursuits also look good on your application. You have to demonstrate that not only are you good at producing good work but that you're also well rounded.

Slightly un-related but some schools offer the "Sutton Trust" - where you get to go to a university (we had a choice of 3 or 4 I think) for a week and they have generic courses which you can attend - apparently it then makes your application into that university move up the pile a little. Also the uni I attended did a Partners Scheme, it was a 2 week course over summer on the degree choice of your course and you had to do group stuff, tour the uni and I had to do a small slide show - the entry grades to my course were an AAB I dont remember; and doing the partners scheme reduced the grades by 1, i.e. to a BBC. It doesn't matter even if you are prediced the grades, its a good experience and I think you were pretty much guaranteed unless you royally screwed up to get accepted on the course (although I did a REALLY REALLY unpopular course)-it may be different for popular courses. It's definately worth a look into the schemes/summer schools that uni's run.

Do you have any careers advisors at your school? Assuming you're still at school, that is. We had a branch of Careers Scotland who came to a room in our school once a week and you could drop by and see if you wanted advice. They were clued up on which universities had good departments in this and that, and even if they didn't know, they would find out for you and save you doing the work.

Also, as someone mentioned above, are you willing to go anywhere in the UK, or have you got a set region in mind?

School careers advice is a good idea by all_apologies. I'd never have thought about it; my schools career lady was uselss; I listed subjects I was doing at A-level then she said "why don't you do one of those at uni" - gee I thought that much up myself (this was the careers lady that also told me I'd definately been predicted a B in GCSE Business Studies (she was shocked when I said I didn't take business studies and was I sure I wasn't taking it). It's worth going in to ask anyway and if they are useless then at least you've lost nothing. There is also something called Connexions - do they offer advice? they offer advice but whether it is career advice I don't know. Connexions came in the year I left school and we got cards and told nothing else. If you look for them on the internet then it may say that they offer carreer advice.

Don’t just choose a university because the Guardian says it has the best psychology school. These rankings change every year. And to be fair all degrees from red brick universities look very attractive to employers. Look at the Red Brick universities. What’s more important is you go and look round the universities your interested in. Check out the lecturers and people who go there. You may hate it, even if it “is the best in the country”. And also check out the night life and the near cities or the city it’s in, this is a very key part to university life. If you’re not enjoying the whole university experience then you won’t get that 1st you want, and your general happiness will be rubbish. I had a mate who got depression because he hated his course. Remember there are campus and city universities. What type do you want to go too? They are very different. I expect your applying through ucas? They are very helpful and give so much information.

University is expensive and a 3 year thing minimum. So it’s a big decision. Choose wisely.

Best of Luck

Tyro x

"Every man I meet is my superior in some way; in that I learn from him." –Ralph Waldo Emerson.